Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

How old are you?
   I'm 29.

What sorts of modifications do you have?
   I'm heavily tattooed and branded, have two and a half-inch stretched ears, a split tongue, and a partial subincision. I have in the past had nearly every variation of piercing, as well as about a dozen implants.

Do you do any yourself?
   I'm quite comfortable performing modifications on myself, but I've never enjoyed performing modifications on others.

What sparked your interest in body modification? Why?
   I don't think anything “sparked” my interest in body modification. I think it's more accurate to say that I am a person who expresses himself using body modification because I was born that way. For whatever reason I didn't fall prey to the disease of conformity that most of the world seems to have succumbed to, and I actually act on those drives (and encourage others to do the same). As far as I'm concerned, it's healthy and normal, and to not do it would be a deviation.

I assume you go for regular medical check ups…just out of curiosity, has your doctor ever said anything about any of your modifications?
   While I have run into problems with occasional doctors, since I've not presented my modifications in a problematic context (that is, I haven't approached my doctor about anything directly related to them), they have not had the opportunity to comment one way or the other. No doctor that actually knows me well has assessed my body modification practises as either being unhealthy or posing a risk to me.

Have you done any energy pulls or suspensions? If so, please indicate how many times and describe your experience.
   Two of my personal experiences with it are described here and here.

In your experience, do most people who go into the more extreme forms of body modification have an idea of the cultural significance of the rituals they undertake? (Particularly with finger-joint amputations and suspensions)?
   I'm not sure that it's relevant. The fact that Yakuza members chopped off fingers to signify loyalty to gang lords has little bearing on the amputee fetishist who simply finds it personally exciting. The pulling rituals that Hindus do as an act of vegetarian religious devotion have little bearing on the person in Iowa pulling with their friend in their back yard in order for them to learn about themselves and strengthen their bond.
   The fact is that these are universal and primal acts that apply to all people. How people choose to fit them into their lives culturally is up to them, and while blindly applying another culture's rites would be foolish, that's not what's going on here. It would be like demanding that people read the Kama Sutra before having sex in order to understand the “cultural significance” of the wild thang… Or like demanding that Buddhists read the Koran in order to understand the cultural significance of spirituality.

Having run BME for 8 or 9 years, how have you seen the community change, if at all?
   Two major changes have occurred in the past decade. First, the media visibility and acceptability of body modification has dramatically increased. As a result, people are able to “discover” body modification more quickly which has meant a massive increase in both the number of young people involved, and the speed at which enthusiasts have been “converted” to active participants.
   Second, the accessibility of heavy procedures has also dramatically increased. This has meant that people tend to “graduate” from lighter procedures such as piercing and tattooing up to heavy surgical procedures in a very short time period. I can't tell you that either of these phenomena are bad in and of themselves, but they certainly increase the risk factor and I hope that people don't think that just because it's easy to get something that it should be taken lightly.